Valentine and Egan, both SCAD grads with master’s degrees in photography, are their own bosses at Paprika Southern and wear many hats.

The models they selected posed on the beach where Valentine and Egan thought worked best, wearing swimsuits Valentine picked out. All the while, Egan captured the images on camera while Valentine recorded a video.

“Everyone has a lot of fun in the process,” said Elena Fodera, a Paprika reader-turned-contributor in Augusta who found Paprika Southern via Instagram. “I think that shines through in the final product.”

“It’s the perfect marriage of both my degrees,” Egan said of her bachelor’s in mass communications and master’s in photography.

Egan wanted to work in journalism again through writing or photography “to tell people’s stories.”

They may suspect a local artist has an interesting background, but it’s unlikely that Valentine and Egan would just sit down for a chat to learn it.

But that’s just what they did for jewelry designer Kristen Baird, their first Paprika interview. With that session, they thought, “Oh, we love this.”

“You’ll never know what someone will agree to unless you just ask them,” Egan said.

They have guidelines and often agree on what stories will work.

They asked, “What do we like? What do we want this to be about?”

“Southern” was unquestionably on the table.

Valentine is Southern, hailing from Wilson, N.C., and Egan, a Yonkers, N.Y., native, is becoming that way.

She likes the South’s slower pace and people’s friendliness. The latter first struck her as “very strange…an unexpected politeness.”

Now she tries smiling and greeting strangers on trips home, but, she said, “Man, they don’t want to make eye contact.”

Paprika stories reach from Florida to Maryland. Egan considers nearly every state below her Empire State “Southern.”

“We don’t want to be exclusive,” said Valentine, who with a laugh added that “Oregon would be pushing it.”

Paprika’s other focuses are art and style.

A recent do-it-yourself section showed how to make a bow tie, and a photo shoot paired “Geek chic” with Southern style charm.

Food is included, too, as some correctly assume from the Paprika name. A rustic and romantic summer picnic under shady trees, anyone?

Their work for Paprika is “more than full-time” some days. And both Valentine and Egan teach photography at Armstrong Atlantic State University, and each works part-time elsewhere: Valentine as a freelance photographer and Egan at Scribble Art Studio.